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Times are tough for today’s utility companies. The challenge of keeping customers happy and employees safe in a world of ever increasing demand and cost pressure. A rise in cyber attacks and threats to network security. Changing regulations and new environmental mandates. How do you maximise operational efficiency without compromising safety and security? Here's three key recommendations.

Step One - Stay Secure with a Reliable, Resilient Mission Critical Network
Fact: 67% of companies report one or more security compromises causing disruption.¹ Fact: Since 2000, natural disasters have cost the global economy $2.5 Trillion.² In this uncertain world, a reliable and resilient mission critical network is imperative to keep your everyday operations running smoothly, even in times of crisis.

Step Two - Go with Proven Mission Critical Communications like TETRA
With over two million users in more than 120 countries, TETRA is proven and trusted. It’s a dedicated network designed to empower utilities with greater safety and efficiency, while delivering the continuity of service and network control your customers expect.

TETRA gives you seamless voice and data communications at all times including during sudden peaks in demand and emergencies. It stays focused on safety with applications like Man Down and GPS tracking. And it looks to the future, paving the way for convergence with LTE for reduced complexity and cost.

Step Three - Expand your Visibility, Enhance your Control
Controlling resources is a big challenge for utilities. With hundreds, if not thousands, of people working across multiple facilities and on the go, how do you keep track of everyone? And everything? Motorola's mission critical technology does the trick.

With Industrial Internet of Things (IoT) solutions, it gives you greater visibility of your assets and infrastructure. It provides the process automation and monitoring necessary to achieve more productivity and safer operations. Plus the security, flexibility and resilience required to maintain control during unforeseen emergencies.

I was in an internal review meeting recently where the presenter asked “If this meeting was taking place 10 or 12 years ago, what would we have predicted was the future of LMR?”. Personally, ten years ago, I would have said “what’s LMR?” but since then I’ve joined Motorola Solutions and I’m much better informed! Land Mobile Radio, otherwise known as PMR, two-way radio, Business Radio or simply walkie-talkies are the devices we’re used to seeing being carried by Police, Fire and Ambulance workers but that are also used in almost every public building or commercial space to allow workers to talk to each other remotely.

The reasoning behind the question was the introduction of other technologies that were touted as replacements for LMR: analogue and then GSM mobile ’phones, DECT ’phones and even VoIP (Voice Over IP). All of these technologies have been presented as better, newer, more advanced systems that would eradicate the need for LMR, but that hasn’t happened yet and I don’t think it is likely to happen any time soon.

You might ask why anyone would use eighty-year-old LMR technology when they can use their shiny new smart phone. Of course, in many cases, they wouldn’t but the core traditional benefits of two-way radio are still as true today as they were 10 or 20 years ago, and they are also being enhanced by the introduction of digital radios (like Motorola’s MOTOTRBO™ range) and integration with other systems and applications. The best tool for any task always depends on the user requirements and when it comes to business-, operations- and mission-critical communications between individuals or groups, you can’t beat LMR:

Instantaneous communication drives major improvements in worker productivity and safety. With a two-way radio, you press the talk button and start talking – there’s no need to wait for a dial tone, or to key in a long phone number, or wait for the connection to go through.

Different call types mean the message goes to all the people you want it to and not to others. You can make private calls to one individual, calls to a defined group of people (such as security or maintenance) or all-call to everyone with a radio. And caller ID means you can see who’s contacting you before you answer. With MOTOTRBO, managers can even stop a call someone else is making so they can make a higher priority call, for example in an emergency to call for a first aider.

Reliable availability so you can make calls when you need to. Everyone has experienced the dreaded “no signal” on their mobile: even in areas with great mobile phone coverage, there are always blackspots where you can’t make a call, or your call gets dropped. And it’s often in the basement or services areas exactly where you need to contact your workers. Two-way radios are typically higher powered than mobiles so suffer less from blackspots, but as you own the radio system you can design it to give total coverage in your environment – you’re not reliant on a third party provider who may have other priorities.

Manageable costs allow budgets to be set and stuck to. There are no call charges when you use your radios, so you can budget capex to purchase your system and enjoy minimal running costs. Or source from a hiring company if you want to operate an opex model with no upfront cost. You can even use a mixed model and purchase your core system then hire additional radios as and when needed.

Rugged, reliable devices offer higher reliability than “consumer-grade” phones. Motorola’s two-way radios are all designed to withstand the tough conditions encountered with every-day use. High and low temperatures, immersion in water, being dropped – Motorola supplies radios to withstand them all.

Advanced new functionality is building on traditional radio capability to bring value-add features like texting, job-ticket management and GPS tracking to further enhance worker effectiveness and safety.

I asked the question “why is anyone still using two-way radios?” but for business communications between individuals and workgroups, the question is really “why is anyone using other technologies?” (or even worse, not using any). The ability to reliably communicate instantaneously across your workforce enhances decision making, improves efficiency and increases safety.

For more information on how MOTOTRBO two-way radios can help improve your communications, watch this short video: